The Caterpillar by Christina G. Rosetti

This is Regan acting out her poem. One of her "classes" is called First Language Lessons, it's a grammar book that teaches parts of speech, dictation, memorization, etc. This is the first poem that Regan had to memorize. She is also, as part of her lessons, supposed to learn how to speak in front of a crowd. I don't think she is gonna have any trouble in that department!

When School Gets Boring

One thing I've been noticing lately...workbooks can be dull. I'm trying to get the kids a good foundation early on, I don't want them to start thinking it's all play and no work. But sometimes, it's just like pulling teeth to get them to sit down and focus on school work. I think we needed a fun break. Luckily for me, there sits my brand new dishwasher box. Now, what is more fun to a kid than a ginormous box?!

So I cut a door in one side, put the bottom on the top to block out the light, grabbed some floor cushions from our reading area and Viola! I'm back to being Fun Mom and not Boring Old School Mom! We all had fun with it. Regan drew pictures inside, so we talked about the nomads and the Egyptians, and how they drew on the cave walls and that's how we know so much about that time. So see, it turned into a school lesson after all!

And even Ricky got in on the lesson!

Nomad Housing

In our history this week, we've learned about nomads and how they moved from place to place and built a home from tree branches and leaves, and that got the kids minds rolling. They wanted to build a nomad hut. Sure, sounds like fun, and since David got a tree-trimmer-on-a-stick-thingie (that's probably not it's technical definition) we've been hacking away at our overgrown trees out front, so we happened to have nomad hut supplies galore.

But, they jumped the gun, and came running inside to tell me that they built their nomad hut, in the back of our fence, which just so happens to be in our not-so-kid-friendly neighbors yard. I let them take some pictures of it, but told them just like the nomads were always on the move, it was time for them to move too, PRONTO! Preferably BEFORE the neighbors got home and found a huge stash of dead tree limbs propped up around their tree.

I hear Regan after she gets it all moved and re-set up in our front yard, "I better make an A on this project!" It was funny, and I'm glad that they enjoyed it so much and learned a lot from history this week. And yes, the hut is still up in the front yard, the neighbors have also enjoyed having a great place to play hide and seek.

Oh, and Regan only wanted her and Riley in the picture, she wasn't too happy that I said our neighbor, Little Tony could be in the picture, and she let it be known. So, we still have to work on our social skills!

Still Swinging

I should say, still trying to get into the swing of things! I originally wanted to do a 4 day work week, I hear this isn't uncommon among HSers. So it's been my goal to get our work done by Friday so we can take off for fun/educational things on Fridays. This week we had a little kink, I had to babysit my 2 nieces, which was fine, but we ended up not doing any work that day. I think the kids are tired of doing workbooks all the time too, so I need to switch some stuff up. Either do some workbooks first, then do something else and come back to it, but I see their eyes glazing over after a while of sitting at the table. The key here is flexibility, right?! But, so far no complaints really, they've been getting their work done, I just think it's going too fast. I keep feeling like I'm forgetting something important, when after 3 hours they're all done, it just seems like it's not enough! They aren't learning enough! But, I think that's also about average, so I need to readjust my thinking on that. I have the list of subjects they need to learn, we have our books, they are learning, I shouldn't worry so much about time and schedules and all that I guess.

We're doing Story of the World vol. 1 and they are really enjoying it. We're studying the Ancients, and right now it's nomads and their lifestyle, so the kids come up with some interesting questions, they want to build a nomadic type house, and eat some weird foods, and all that. I'm glad they are getting into it, and seem to enjoy history as much as I do!

Next week I will have my nephew all week so it will be another lesson in flexibility, we'll see how it goes. He might just get a week of school before school!

Official Start Day

I have been telling the kids that we would start school "officially" the Monday we get back from vacation. The kids went to church camp, David and I went to Vegas, so I felt like it was time to get back in the swing of things. Their old school started last week and they are on the year round schedule and I really want to stick close to that.

My big problem is I still don't have a math curriculum or a grammar curriculum for Riley. Oh well, time to jump in, right?! So it didn't exactly go as I had planned. My plan was somewhat ambitious I guess, I wanted to be up at 8 (which isn't likely to happen after staying up until 1) and have the kids spend a few minutes cleaning up in their room, and then eat breakfast, do our devotional and then start on school.

In actuality, we didn't start until around noon, I passed out the school supplies I bought for the kids, we went over some of the rules, which are basically the same as what they've had in school before, no name calling, no talking while I'm talking, and other than that, I'm pretty flexible. Then I went over the subjects that we'll be doing this year, and let them know if it's too easy or too hard, we can adjust, this is to see where we are. We started off with our Bible Devotional which we all really enjoyed, and they had some things to add that they had learned in church, which makes me think they DO actually listen back there!

I had them each start their Spelling Workout book, chapter one, and they both thought it was super easy, but Regan misspelled one word, and Riley misspelled two, so I think we're okay there. Then I did some grammar work with Regan while Riley worked on some spelling some more, he has twice as many words as Regan so it took him a little longer. We did two lessons in her grammar book because it's a 1st/2nd grade combined book, and I didn't want to start in the middle, so I figured we would double up as much as we can, so she can get a better foundation.

And then I had them each do a few pages in their cursive handwriting books, which they both enjoyed. I know it won't always be this short, easy, or pain free, but for today, I feel like it was a success.

Another thing I did, I got them each a cute mini-notepad, and a pack of smiley face stickers. I told them each time they impress me, either with good behavior or with getting their work done in a timely fashion, I would give them a sticker, they can earn more than one a day, and they won't ever lose any. After one page gets filled (I'm thinking it might take about 15 on Regan's, 20 on Riley's since his notebook was bigger) then they can pick a random toy out of the bag, or a special field trip or treat. I picked up some small items at Target this week too, just for this occasion, so I hope it works. They did pretty good today and they each got one sticker.

And Ricky is our new mascot kitty, he jumped up in the middle of the table and stayed right smack dab in the middle of us until we were all done.